Our kids love playing with coins (and managed to con my parents out of all their change) so yesterday I thought I'd give this little activity a try. I printed out labels with the names of the coins and pictures of them and taped them to plastic containers I've saved (mainly from shredded parmesan cheese...we go through a lot of that here). I wanted the kids to put the coins in the proper container.
I'm not entirely sure what they learned, but here's what I learned:
1. First Daughter could not even separate the pennies from the rest. Since I know she knows the difference between brown and gray/silver, I'm guessing she was just too excited by the feel of the coins in her hands and the joys of pouring them back out of the containers (which did not please First Son, perhaps an added benefit for her).
2. First Son could not understand the fact that the pictures on the containers were not actual size. He would hold the coins up and if they matched the diameter (which they did surprisingly often when the coin was wrong), he was satisfied.
3. First Son cannot tell the difference between a quarter and a nickel. At first I was a little dismayed by this difficulty because they seem totally different to me, but Kansas Dad assures me the nickel has smooth edges because it's so similar to the quarter, so those who can't see well enough can easily feel the difference between the quarter and the nickel. (I've been married to the man for a decade and am still astounded at all the things he just knows!).
4. The kids love playing with coins. (Oh wait, I already knew that.)
I think we'll get these containers out again every so often because even if they don't learn anything, they had fun. I will, however, have to watch Second Daughter like a hawk because there's a good chance First Daughter would leave the coins lying around or just go ahead and feed them to her sister.
